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Accessibility For All: Meet Patrik from Hilton Prague

Patrik Simanek

16 May 2024

Europe, Middle East, AfricaInclusionTeam Member stories

At Hilton, we celebrate the many Team Members who make up our diverse global workforce, including Team Members with disabilities like Patrik. In this guest blog, learn how Hilton's commitment to accessibility helped transform Patrik's work life.

Patrikblog2

Patrik working at Hilton Prague, using his tablet and mouth device. 

Get to Know Patrik

I am a Group Reservation Agent at  Hilton Prague and also a person with quadriplegia, as a result of a water accident in 2008. Fortunately, I did not sustain any injury to my brain and was able to graduate with a degree in International Relations and Tourism. After a challenging job search where I faced adversity in hiring due to my disability, luck smiled on me here at Hilton, and I have been a part of the Hilton family since July 2023. 

Overcoming Obstacles

One of the biggest challenges I faced at work was selecting the right equipment, as I can only control anything with my mouth. Luckily, the Hilton team has been very accommodating and helped find me a tablet and a second touchscreen so I could reach it safely with my mouth device. I do all my daily work, which entails booking groups and guest reservations, through this device.

I enjoy my job at Hilton, and to me, it is more than just entering data into the system. I find it fulfilling to help both the hotel and the guest to make their stay perfect with us.

However, sometimes simple things that others take for granted can be the biggest challenges for someone with disabilities. One of the difficulties for me was simply unlocking my computer every morning. Since the system uses “ctrl-alt-delete,” which requires the user to press three buttons simultaneously, I had to rely on someone else to help me log in every day. When Stuart Carr, Senior Director, Infrastructure Platform Engineering, heard about this issue, he took it upon himself to create a special policy that would allow me to bypass this step and do my job more efficiently.

Thanks to Stuart and the technology team, I can now simply click “OK” to unlock my screen. It was one small change, and it has made such an impact on my daily life at work. It’s not so common to receive such support, and I’m so grateful to Stuart and the team.  

I am so happy I have found a home at Hilton, a place that is so welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities, and I love being a part of spreading the light and warmth of hospitality for our guests.

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